1. Feeling part of a community?
Tackling experiences of peripherality in
part-time doctoral study
Dr Katy Vigurs @drkatyvigurs

2. Participation in social practices is a necessary condition for
learning (Lave and Wenger, 1991)

3. WHO ARE MY STUDENTS?
• Full-time professionals in
education
• Parents & carers
• Multiple roles &
responsibilities (BUSY!)
• Shifting identities
• Fractured student
identity? (Watts, 2008)

4. PROFESSIONAL OBSERVATIONS &
CRITICAL INCIDENTS
• My EdD role &
responsibilities.
• What was I observing
in the EdD cohorts?
• What was happening?
• What wasn’t
happening?

5. QUESTIONS I ASKED MYSELF
• Do I think increasing participation within
academic/research communities of practice is an
important part of the doctoral learning process?
• Do any of my EdD students lack access to such
opportunities?
• Are they disadvantaged by this?
• How do I identify and support students when they are
experiencing peripherality or isolation from academic
communities of practice?

6. HOW ACHIEVE LEGITIMATE PERIPHERAL
PARTICIPATION AS AN EDD STUDENT?
• Can social media help
EdD students move from
a position of academic
peripherality to one of
legitimate peripheral
participation in a wider
research community?

7. RESEARCH-INFORMED TEACHING PROJECT (2014)
‘TWITTER FOR DOCTORAL PURPOSES’
• Embedded ‘Twitter
training’ into EdD
Induction for new cohort.
• Produced guide for EdD
staff and EdD students
already on programme.
• Project evaluation.

8. @asb2000 @RAISECIC
@SharonInglis
@Sandragogy
@fabfifty60s
@melanie_beckett@jonrainford

9. RESEARCHING PART-TIME DOCTORAL
STUDENTS’ USE OF TWITTER
• In depth, online
questionnaire.
• 32 Qs (majority open)
• All 26 Staffs Uni EdD
students completed QA.
• Also shared survey
publicly via Twitter (n36)
• 62 returns (30,000 words
of data)

10. WHAT DID I WANT TO FIND OUT?
EXAMPLE QUESTIONS
• Why did you start using Twitter for
doctoral purposes?
• How did you learn to use Twitter?
• How do you make use of Twitter?
• Benefits & challenges?
• How has Twitter impacted on how
you feel about studying your
doctorate?
• How important is it that your
supervisors are visible &
accessible on Twitter?

11. RESPONDENT CHARACTERISTICS
• Group A – my students
& new users of Twitter
(n26)
• Group B – EdD students
elsewhere (n15)
• Group C – PT PhD
students (n21)

12. BENEFIT #1: ENHANCED BELONGING TO A COHORT
Tweets with classmates have
involved banter. In class we
create good academic
relationships, but there’s no time
to get to know people outside of
their study interests. I need to
have that connection. (A1)
Sense of social presence with my peers
has been maintained and I think this will
be of great value as I move to the
independent phase of the EdD. (A3)
I feel part of an academic cohort
that is working and thinking
together. (A2)
Engaging in more informal,
ongoing conversations with
my tutors breaks down
barriers & helps create
better relationships. (B2)
Most of the EdD tutors
were already using
Twitter regularly so it
made sense to join in.
(B1)
It helped me maintain a
contact network when I
moved away
(geographically) from my
EdD peers. (B3)
Sense of community
outside the monthly
weekend classes. (B4)

13. BENEFIT #2: JOINING A WIDER COMMUNITY
I can see the bigger EdD
community, not just the class I
study with . (A5)
It makes me feel much more connected
to other people and like a wider group of
people are looking out for me. (A7)
It’s helping me make links with
other researchers and
professionals. (A10)
It’s really about being part
of a wider community
beyond the walls of an
individual institution. (B7)
I’ve joined a global
research
community.(B11)
After attending a
conference I realised that
a lot of academics I like
tweet! (C3)
Twitter has been like
an associate
supervisor. (C4)

14. BENEFIT #3: KEEPING MOTIVATED
Noting others’ study lives has
made me believe I can do
doctoral study too. (A20)
It gives me timely reminders that I’m doing
an EdD. Studying part-time means I’m
swamped by other commitments. Twitter
helps me keep engaged with study in a
very busy life. (A9)
Twitter motivates me, especially
reading tweets from other
doctoral students. (A17)
Daily use of Twitter helps
motivate me to keep going,
given the task of juggling
my study with full time work
and family. (B12)
The research phase of
EdD can be isolating.
Twitter has kept me
connected &
motivated. (B7)
As a part-timer who is never
on campus, it’s let me find a
doctoral community & peers
(C12)
Wasn’t part of academic
community at uni so looked
to Twitter for motivation
(C5)

15. LIMITATIONS TO USING TWITTER TO CREATE
AN INCLUSIVE RESEARCH CULTURE
• ‘I’m not a social media
type.’
• Unconvinced of Twitter’s
value.
• Time to learn Twitter.
• Lack of confidence.
• Fear of public derision.
• Exclusive practices.

16. SUPERVISORS ON TWITTER?
YES NO

17. RESPONDENTS WERE EXPERIENCING
PERIPHERALITY
• Felt physically distant from peers, tutors,
supervisors and the university.
• Experienced being on the edge of a more
abstract sense of academic community.
• For some Twitter use developed access to
forms of LPP.

18. WAYS FORWARD?
• It’s not about Twitter per se!
• Explicitly educate supervisors
and students about broader
approaches to networked
communities & scholarship.
Links to achieving LPP.
• I’ve embedded this in
doctoral inductions &
supervisor training.

20. FURTHER READING #1
• Bendix Petersen, E. (2014) Re-signifying subjectivity? A narrative exploration of ‘non-traditional’ doctoral
students’ lived experience of subject formation through two Australian cases. Studies in Higher Education
39. 5: 823-34.
• Crossouard, B. and Pryor, J. (2008) Becoming researchers: a sociocultural perspective on assessment,
learning and the construction of identity in a professional doctorate.” Pedagogy, Culture and Society 16. 3:
221-37.
• Deem, R. and Brehony, K. (2000) Doctoral students’ access to research cultures – Are some more unequal
than others? Studies in Higher Education 25. 2: 149-65.
• Hasrati, M. (2005) Legitimate peripheral participation and supervising PhD students. Studies in Higher
Education 30. 5: 557-70.
• Henderson, M., Selwyn, N., Finger, G. and Aston, R. (2015) Students’ everyday engagement with digital
technology in university: exploring patterns of use and ‘usefulness’. Journal of Higher Education Policy and
Management 37. 3: 308-19.
• Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
• Lupton, D. (2014) ‘Feeling better connected’: Academics’ use of social media. Canberra: News & Media
Research Centre, University of Canberra.

21. FURTHER READING #2
• McPherson, M., Budge, K. and Lemon, N. (2015) New practices in doing academic
development: Twitter as an informal learning space. International Journal for
Academic Development 20. 2: 126-36.
• Murakami-Ramalho, E., Militello, M. and Piert, J. (2013) A view from within: how
doctoral students in educational administration develop research knowledge and
identity. Studies in Higher Education 38. 2: 256-71.
• Pilbeam, C., Lloyd-Jones, G. and Denyer, D. (2013) Leveraging value in doctoral
student networks through social capital. Studies in Higher Education 38. 10: 1472-89.
• Teeuwsen, P., Ratkovic, S. and Tilley, S.A. (2014) Becoming academics: experiencing
peripheral participation in part-time doctoral studies. Studies in Higher Education 39.
4: 680-94.
• Vigurs, K. (2016) Using Twitter to tackle peripherality? Facilitating networked
scholarship for part-time doctoral students within and beyond the university, Fusion,
8, pp. 1-27.
• Watts, J. (2008) Challenges of supervising part-time PhD studnets: Towards student-
centred practice, Teaching in Higher Education, 13. 3: 369-73.